Motorways in Poland are identified by the letter A, followed by a number (e.g. A1). Under current plans, by 2015 three motorways will span the country, with two routes running along an east to west axis (A2 running centrally and A4 running southerly) and one motorway traversing a north to south axis (with A1 running centrally). In addition, three shorter motorway stretches (A6, A8, A18) complete the planned motorway network. The only complete motorway stretch is A8. All others are currently under construction or in various stages of planning. As of September 2013, 1,389 km (860 mi) of motorways are in use.[2]

Expressways in Poland are limited-access roads, divided into either dual or single carriageways. Expressway on-ramp signs in Poland are marked by a white car inside a blue background, while numbered designations are white on a red background, with the letter S preceding the number. Major expressways (in various stages of use, construction, or planning) include S3, S5, S7, S11, S17 and S19 running north to south, and S6, S8, S10, S12 and S74, running east to west. As of September 2013, nearly 1,269 km (790 mi) of expressways are currently in use.[2]

Under the government of Prime Minister Marek Belka, the Council of Ministers regulations issued in May 2004 detailed plans for a network of motorways and expressways totaling to 7,200 km (4,470 mi) across the republic, including nearly 2,000 km (1,240 mi) of designated motorways.[3] Further cabinet regulations under Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński published in February 2007 added S2 and S79 to the network, planned to facilitate high speed traffic in and out of Warsaw.[4] In October 2009, the cabinet under Donald Tusk supplemented plans for the construction of S61 to serve the northeastern region of the country to connect with Lithuania.[5]

The following table summarizes the planned motorway and expressway network with approximate lengths. As of September 2013, nearly 252 km (160 mi) of motorways and 395 km (250 mi) of expressways are in various stages of construction.[2]

The first plans for the creation of a national highway network in Poland were conceived in the interwar period. The main promoter of this concept was Professor Melchior Wladyslaw Nestorowicz of the Warsaw University of Technology, who organized three Road Congresses, during which a group of specialists discussed the creation of the network. On March 5, 1939, in the trade magazine Drogowiec, Professor Nestorowicz proposed a very ambitious plan for the construction of almost 5,000 kilometres of category I and II roads, based on similar programmes in Germany and Italy.[6] Nestorowicz sketched a map of the future system with the following routes: